A senior employee at Newcastle-based Pure Panel Management has been jailed after embezzling more than £767,000 from the business, placing the firm on the brink of collapse.
An accounts manager who worked for Pure Panel Management for almost 15 years has been sentenced to three years in prison after stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds from the company to fund a gambling addiction.
According to reporting by the Newcastle Chronicle, Susanne Redhead had been employed by the Newcastle firm since 2010 and had risen to become accounts manager, operating with no senior oversight within the finance function.
Her offending was uncovered in January 2025, when it emerged she had been making repeated payments to herself from company accounts. In the final stages before detection, she transferred £100,000 in a single week and £363,000 during December 2024 alone.
When challenged by her employer and told to stop work immediately, she admitted the misconduct, stating that she had been gambling.
The court heard that between November 2023 and January 2025, Redhead stole £767,272 through 445 separate transactions. When challenged by her employer and told to stop work immediately, she admitted the misconduct, stating that she had been gambling.
Prosecutor Gurjot Kaur told the court that Redhead exploited periods when the office was closed, including over Christmas, to maximise the theft. After she emptied the accounts during the 2024 festive period, the company was left in a negative balance for the first time in its history, the Newcastle Chronicle reported.
BUSINESS AT RISK
In a victim impact statement cited by the newspaper, managing director James Gillam said the theft had put the business at risk and endangered the livelihoods of staff who had trusted her for years.
Operations director Helen Scorer described the actions as “utterly disgusting”, adding that the business, which regarded Redhead as part of its family, had been pushed close to bankruptcy.
Sentencing Redhead, Judge Tim Gittins said the sums involved were “quite staggering” and that her actions had devastated colleagues who had treated her as a close friend and trusted her implicitly.
LOST TO GAMBLING
Redhead, 53, of Newbiggin Hall, Newcastle, pleaded guilty to theft and had no previous convictions. Her defence told the court that all of the money had been lost to gambling and that she had not benefited from a lavish lifestyle.
She will now be subject to Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings in an attempt to recover any remaining assets.
Pure Panel Management describes itself as one of the UK’s leading panel management firms, providing nationwide services to lenders, packagers and brokers operating in the residential mortgage market.
